Fortune Center executive director Gilda Rogers, left, discussing assignments with ‘Fortune Tellers’ prior to the exhibit’s opening Saturday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
With the opening of a new exhibit at Red Bank’s T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, a group of student guides dubbed “Fortune Tellers” are offering visitors a taste of history and the influence of Black journalists on American society.
The exhibit includes a large collage featuring a portrait of T. Thomas Fortune, above, and information panels tracing the history of Black journalism mounted throughout the room. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
The exhibit, “The Black Press: Stewards of Democracy,” uses large displays hung in a first-floor room of onetime home of reporter and editor T. Thomas Fortune, who lived in the Beech Street (now Dr. James Parker Boulevard) house for a decade beginning in 1901.
The display traces the history of the African-American-owned media, starting with Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm’s founding, in 1827, of the first Black-owned newspaper, Freedom’s Journal.
On hand to answer questions and engage visitors is a select group of eight high school and college students who serve as tour guides, or ‘Fortune Tellers,’ for the exhibit, which runs through January 31.
Sydni Scott, a senior at Colonia High School in Woodbridge, joined the Fortune Tellers after visiting the center on a school field trip and becoming aware of internship availabilities.
“I felt so connected to this place, and once I heard about the internship, I knew I had to apply,” she told redbankgreen.
After acceptance into the training program, Scott said she spent five weeks with other Fortune Tellers over the summer “learning about all the figures you see on display here. So now, it’s such a full-circle experience.”
“These young people are the ones who will sustain us,” said Gilda Rogers, the center’s co-founder and executive director.
More information about the Fortune Tells program is here.
The nonprofit T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center is at 94 Drs. James Parker Boulevard. Exhibits are open to the general public from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, with a suggested admission donation of $12 per person ($5 for children and seniors). Tours for schools and other groups are available Thursdays and Fridays.
